Greg Peters Live » Church Life

Update on Sev

greg — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 18:07:33 +0000

I received the following text from Sev’s wife, Grace, just a little bit ago: Updat 9/8 ct scan showed no changes from before. Still 2 blood clots on brain. Still some bleeding. Pray for disolution of the clots and no brain damage. I’m well, I had some time to myself and am continuing to take that time for the rest of the day. Appreciate all the love. I love you all.

I personally want thank everyone from Parkview who has reached to the Tamayo family. There has been a real amazing outpouring of love. You are so living John 13:35!!! The staff is working on a couple small things to reinforce our love for the family.

For the next 2 weeks we will be receiving funds to help the Tamayo’s with their financial burden. The main way that I see us being able to help is, Grace is a waitress and no work means no pay. She will probably be missing a couple months of work. I would like for us to cover her loss of pay. Any money you would like to contribute towards this cause just mark your check or envelope SEV. I know your generosity will once again be a huge blessing to someone in need. I always enjoy watching our church respond to these type of opportunities with such love.

Sev

greg — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 03:03:27 +0000

It is late Monday night but I wanted to share a quick post.

Our head usher, Sev Tamayo, was involved in a motorcycle accident Sunday morning on the way to church. Once we found out, we led our church in a time of prayer. Sev was life flighted from the scene and was in very serious condition. Praise God He has heard our prayers. Just moments ago I received another text from Sev’s wife Grave. Sev is now responding and is improving as time passes. I don’t have time to share all the God stories around this event but look forward to sharing more this coming weekend. Please keep praying for Sev and his family!!!

Throw it in park!

greg — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 02:13:36 +0000

Years and years ago, when I couldn’t have been but about 10 or 12 years old, I had a very interesting driving experience. There was a littel snow and ice on the ground in Deleware and I was out with my aunt. All I really remember is being in a neighborhood and us being stuck on a little patch of ice. Somehow I ended up in the driver’s seat of her little white Sunbird and she and perhaps a good samaritan pushed us to an “unstuck”position. Never having driven in my entire life, I wasn’t wuite sure what to do with the fact that I was now driving in the snow. I am not sure if it was her yelling, or my own panic, but rather than hit the brake I just slammed the car in park. While it didn’t sound to good, it did accomplish the purpose, the car came to an abrupt stop.

While at our recent staff and elder retreat the speaker used the phrase, “park your heart before the Lord”. Life can get so busy…blah, blah, blah…. you could finish that paragraph yourself. Let me just jump to the point – make sure you are taking the time to recalibrate and be certain to park your heart before the Lord.

I want to lead us to be a church that has this as a part of our DNA, but it will never rise past the culture of our individual leaders. As a leader, what has your time with God looked like over the last 2 weeks?

Links for Living

greg — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 14:04:57 +0000

I have an appointment today where I want this verse to be true of me.

This is a cool verse about giving.

Everyone has experienced this verse at some point in their life.

I pray that this verse is not true of my life.

Watch this and then do this!!!!

Prayers for the Patton family

greg — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 01:28:30 +0000

While they were with us this weekend, Mark Patton gave us some specific ways that we can pray for their family. You may not have had a chance to write down his requests, so I wanted to give them once again in this post.

Pray for their children as they attend public school and attempt to live out their faith in a very non-christian environment.
Pray that the Lord would give them discernment in how to be most effective in reaching the people of Hungary.
Pray that the Lord would guide them as they seek to bridge the challenges of ministering in a foreign culture.

Mark, Charin, Nancy, Benji, Esther and Hannah, have faithfully served for 17 years in Hungary. Please be faithful in praying for them, specifically as they fly back to Hungary this Friday. If you use the “Stamped” missions packet that we gave out at our missions event back in February and pray through the packet each night at dinner, or however you use the packet to pray through our missions partners, then please add the Patton’s prayer card into your prayer rotation.

Friendship that is deeper than talent

greg — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 02:50:49 +0000

Today was one of those days that I was reminded of all the talented people that the Lord has placed around me. If the congregation could really see it from my viewpoint they would see that I am not as talented as some think I might be. If they could see the amazing leaders around me they would have an ah..ha moment and discover much of the reason for our success. But something encourages me far greater than the leadership around me and that is the friendship that runs ahead of the leadership. The Lord has blessed me with leaders around me that are such incredible friends. They careand they show it – as a leader what more could you ask for when the talent is deep but the friendship is deeper!!

Family, Friends, Fun and Fireworks

greg — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 03:19:20 +0000

This saturday night will be a night our church and city willl never forget!!!!!!
Campus opens at 5pm
Bring your food, chairs and blankets
Inflatables are free
Balloon man works for tips
Dunk tank is $1
Parking will be on the grass/dirt area adjacent the South of our building, the front parking lot and the park property immediately adjacent our property to the North.
Patriotic service at 7:15pm
Outdoor stage
Gospel recording artist Channing Eleton
Military Color Guard
Veteran’s testimonies
Looking forward to having one combined weekend service
We will worship through the act of giving and be receiving an offering
Patriotic message
FIREWORKS SHOW following the service
This is a professional, high quality show just like you would see at Disney or Sea World!
Invite your friends and family!!!!!!!!

The middle road

greg — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 17:59:46 +0000

A number of people in our church have read the book, Crazy Love, by Francis Chan. In fact, I think a couple of our small groups have read the book and done the accompanying study. I read the book with a mentoring group and was really challenged by the read.

Just a couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to hear Francis Chan preach live.

I also stumbled across this clip and found it to be interesting, thought provoking and challenging. Click here to view an explanation of the middle road.

Better is Better

greg — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:13:12 +0000

Sometimes in ministry we get overly focused on bigger. Nothing is wrong with bigger, in fact, I think bigger honors God. Not that small churches don’t honor God, but if you can grow and God has put you in a place to grow, then when you do grow that obviously honors Him. In other words, the more people we reach, the better. The bigger we are the more life change we are able to actualize. I do see value in numbers because ultimately numbers equals souls. Empty seats never get saved! With all my heart I want to reach as many people for Christ as possible. While I am all for bigger, I do think better is better. Let me explain – If we keep getting better, better at first impressions, better at campus beautification, better at loving babies, better childrens ministry, better at empowering students, better at preaching the Word, better at the excellence in our tech team, better at the quality of worship, better at the way we fellowship, better at the way we build stronger believers, better at our outreach events, etc, etc, etc. If we keep getting better – bigger will take care of itself!!! If we determine to be better then the community will dictate bigger. By the way, better is normally not working harder it is just working smarter. If somebody is not interested in better then there is a bigger problem – pun intended.

If you are leading or serving in ministry, ask yourself, “what one thing could I do just a little bit better?”.

A favorite quote of mine is – excellence honors God and God honors excellence.

May we get better for His glory!!!

I need more depth

greg — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 03:05:09 +0000

A rather common statement made by Christians is that they “want more depth”. While that statement can mean different things to different people, I think we need to be careful when we make that statement. I am all for growing deeper and expanding knowledge as long as it is not for knowledge sake alone. “Knowledge puffs up” if we are not careful.

Recently I made the statement in a sermon that “we are educated way beyond our obedience”. I was commenting to someone today about how I will discover a “new or deeper” truth, teach that truth, be totally excited from several different angles about the deeper truth and in a few weeks I can’t even remember what I sudied, discovered, prepared and taught. Perhaps that is a statement about my preaching but I think it is more about my memory. It also serves as just another reminder that I need to be concerned about doing what I know and not worry about the deeper truth that I have forgotten. If I never learned another biblical truth, I would still not be able to obey all that I already know.

Pastor Steven Furtick had a recent post where he touched on a similar topic. He said, “The greatest problem of American Christians when it comes to the Bible is not that we are not deep in God’s Word. The problem is that we are not active in God’s Word. We have a lot more revelation than our current level of active application. And revelation without application leads to stagnation”. You can read his entire post by clicking here.